Pause for Consideration
by Moontan
Summary: It all starts when Seras and Alucard are on a mission. After clearing two vampires from a building, they make their way upstairs to silence the final target. But some targets aren't as noisy as others. (Open to constructive criticisms.)
1. Chapter 1

The door burst open and Alucard entered the room. While it was true he could simply phase through the wall, sometimes there was something satisfactory about crashing in a door. Seras walked in behind him, her own entrance quiet in the wake of her Master. Both of them saw a desk and behind it was a chair that was facing away from the door. It was shaking slightly and it wasn't hard to guess that the remaining target was seated there.

"You might as well show yourself; that chair isn't going to protect you," taunted Alucard. Slowly the chair turned around. If Alucard was expecting a mighty opponent, well, he was about to be disappointed. Sitting in the chair was, for all physical purposes, a young woman, probably a little younger than Seras herself. Her red eyes, however, was a dead giveaway that she was a vampire, so her true age was hard to discern by looks alone. However, the anxious look on her face seemed more in keeping with a young vampire. She certainly wasn't as old as Alucard; probably not even half as much.

Despite the similarity in their apparent ages, she was quite an opposite to Seras. Her hair was dark and long. The top of it was pulled back in a braided crown, while the rest hung down her back in soft waves. She wore a stark white, peasant style blouse and a pair of dark red jeans. Unlike his busty fledgling, this woman was quite slim. And she seemed to lack even the fire of the Police Girl.

"You've killed the others?" she asks, looking between Alucard and the other female vampire. Her voice wasn't angry or even frightened exactly. Certainly it sounded sorrowful and more than a little bit resigned. She briefly put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. Alucard watched her for a few moments. "And you won't leave until you've killed me also?" she said. Whether this was a question or actually a statement was a bit hard to tell.

"That's the plan," Alucard said with a smirk, pulling out his standard gun. The woman's eyes grew a bit wider as she stared down the barrel of the gun; then she raised her eyes to look at Alucard's glasses. She sighed deeply but said nothing right away. Any moment now Alucard expected a speech. They always gave him speeches. It was a source of amusement while at the same time, a source of annoyance. The breed had fallen as of late, especially with the FREAK vampires on the loose.

"I suppose it wouldn't be any use asking you not to," the woman finally said, rising to her feet. She wasn't very tall and she certainly didn't appear as a threat. Alucard laughed in spite of himself. There was no posturing, no bragging, and no threats. There was simply the one statement with no aggressive body language. This really wasn't what he expected. He flicked a glance towards his fledgling who was openly staring at the other woman, curiosity written on her face.

"Don't you think that's a little bit pathetic?" he sneered, showing his fangs. The woman held up a hand as if it could ward him off.

"Not really," she said with a whimsical smile that didn't reach her eyes. "You've already killed the other two vampires downstairs, and that means you're stronger than them. That also means you're stronger than me, so even if I was to make a move, you could likely shoot me before I had a chance to even touch you." She looked at Seras again and nodded her head politely. "Besides, there's two of you and only one of me."

"How very interesting," Alucard mused, still sneering. "You show wisdom. Too bad it won't save you." Still, he didn't shoot, not yet. If he could get more amusement out of this encounter, then he would. So far the woman had shown no fighting initiative, or any hint that she was able to defend herself. Those he had found downstairs had the full quota of arrogance combined with stupidity. As far as he knew, she was the youngest of them all, a new addition to their family, so to speak.

"Can you at least tell me why it is so necessary?" she asked. "You and your companion are vampires, just as I am." She raised her eyebrows a little. "If there was something you wanted here, you would be welcome to it." Her arms spread outwards to indicate the house and its entire contents. "None of it really matters to me."

"I have my reasons," Alucard said flatly. In a mere blur of motion he moved from standing near the door to sitting on the desk right in front of the woman, his gun shoved under her chin, forcing it up so that she had little choice but to stare him in the face, or close her eyes. She winced at the contact but she didn't take her eyes from Alucard's face.

"I'm sure you do," the woman murmured softly. "But I doubt it's personal; I have never set my eyes on you or your companion. I've never harmed you."

"What's your name?" asked Seras, speaking for the first time since she entered the room with Alucard. Her Master shot her a look of annoyance.

"_Don't get soft, Police Girl_," Alucard growled directly to her mind. "_She's not one of your precious human beings_."

"_I know, Master, but she seems so different_," was Seras' somewhat plaintive reply.

"_Focus_." Realizing that Seras didn't have her heart in the attack, so to speak, Alucard pulled the trigger. He expected a spatter of blood to fly through the air, painting the walls behind his opponent red. Instead, there was nothing, not even the vampire woman. He heard a soft thud in the room below them; the woman had phased through the floor. Instead of being angry, he laughed softly.

"Well, well. We can rule out her being a FREAK," he said, tucking his gun away. "She's downstairs, Police Girl. This might be more interesting than I expected."

"Yes Master!" said Seras, quickly regaining her spunk as she followed Alucard out of the room. Clearly Alucard wasn't worried; if the matter was truly pressing he would have phased through the floor after their target, leaving Seras behind. Since he was letting Seras follow, she assumed he had things well in hand.

In truth, Alucard wanted just a few moments to think. The vampires he had fought first were much like the Priest in Cheddar. While they weren't FREAKS they also were a far cry from master vampires. None of them seemed to have any ability to phase or do more than raise ghouls and perform feats of speed and strength. He had thought she was just a scared child. Evidently, he had guessed wrong, and that was not good. Still, at least it kept things from being too boring. So many vampires had fallen to him, and almost all of them had been disappointments.

The pair of vampires, master and fledgling, searched back through the house, but their target was gone. This was also rather unusual as a lot of vampires they fought were highly territorial. Alucard lumped that in with the arrogance and stupidity. Of course, he had his full share of arrogance, but with one difference: he could back up his claims.


	2. Chapter 2

(**I make no pretense of owning Hellsing.**)

Diana stopped for a moment to take stock of the situation. She was alone, and that didn't sit well with her. While she had told the two intruders that nothing in the house meant anything to her, that wasn't completely true. Her coffin was inside and it was a very personal thing to her indeed. And it wasn't as though coffins were easy to come by; she couldn't simply walk into any furniture store and buy one. Of course, it also didn't help that she wasn't exactly wealthy. Unlike humans there were very few things she needed to obtain with money. As long as she had someplace relatively safe to keep her coffin, she was content.

Perhaps she could go back for it when the intruders were gone. With any luck they would leave her coffin alone, though she was sure that it was too much to hope for. Most likely they would keep an eye on it for her to return if they didn't outright destroy it. She sighed softly to herself. Leaning against a tree she folded her arms and closed her eyes, focusing on her senses of hearing and smell. They would alert her much sooner than sight would.

A crunch in the nearby grass alerted her, and she disappeared up the tree. Silently she watched as a tall man approached the house she had so recently vacated. Hiding up there, she was glad that she was among the undead; she could hold her breath for a long time and sit really still. This was just as well since she believed that this man would be no friendlier than the two who had entered her home, though his green eyes indicated he was human. However, if she had learned anything, it was that the overly religious people had no love for vampires, and this man wore his religion proudly on his chest in the form of a large cross. Add to this the priestly robes he wore and the grim determination on her face, and she decided she didn't want to cross him either.

Forcing herself to remain still, Diana watched as the man kept walking to the house. Moments later a shot was fired. From her perch, Diana saw a bullet punch a hole in the Priest's shoulder and she inhaled slightly as the smell of blood floated up from the wound.

"Well now, if it isn't Hellsing's pet vampire. And the pet of the pet," said the Priest, his words thickly accented with a brogue. Diana bemoaned her luck as the two intruders from earlier showed up: the tall vampire with the pistols and his blonde companion. Between the two sides, she wasn't sure which she would rather face. Maybe now was a good time to make a real escape. Yet she couldn't tear herself away from the conflict.

"Alexander Anderson," returned the red-garbed vampire, pulling out a second gun. "You're not who we were looking for, but you'll do." Diana noticed he sneered at the Priest also; at least it wasn't just her that this animosity was directed at.

"I'm happy to oblige any abomination in sending it to hell," replied the Priest, almost spitting his words. Suddenly his hands were full of gleaming blades. Diana winced; those looked like they would hurt. With a powerful motion he flung the blades towards the two vampires. The one in red phased out, avoiding damage, but the blonde didn't dodge quite fast enough, catching one of the blades in her shoulder with a short cry of pain.

"You'll have to do better than this, Priest!" taunted Alucard, reappearing a short distance away and firing off a shot from each of his guns. Both hit their mark, but the Priest was already in motion, moving towards Alucard with a swiftness that seemed at odds with his injuries.

Diana shook her head and forced herself to look away. Now that the Priest and the two vampires were being distracted by each other it was the perfect time to sneak back into her house and salvage her coffin. Stealthily she made her way out of the tree and towards the house. She would go in the back and use the trees for cover until she no longer could. Resolutely she made sure she didn't stop to watch the battle. It would be too easy to become mesmerized by the motions and lose her opportunity.

She managed to make it to her coffin without further issue. To her dismay she realized that while she could phase herself through walls, she wasn't strong enough to phase her coffin as well. This meant she had to do things the hard way. With a petulant sigh, she started dragging her coffin towards the stairs. It wasn't exactly heavy to her, but it was large and awkward. She moved slowly so as not to bang it along the walls. It was really her only material possession, so she treated it with care. Anything else could be easily replaced.

By the time she made it upstairs and out the back door, she could no longer hear the sounds of a fight. Closing her eyes she strained to hear anything that might tell her who had survived the encounter and where they might be. At first there was nothing, but then she heard footfalls. Moments later a thunk made her open her eyes. A shining blade was embedded in the top of her coffin. Diana groaned in annoyance. Looking past the blade she saw the Priest had been victorious.

"Forgive me father, for I have sinned...and will continue to sin," she murmured softly, head bowed slightly. Alexander gave her a vicious smile.

"Quite the pious abomination," he said with his booming brogue, throwing a handful of blades at Diana. She managed to dodge a few, but got a pair in her leg, making it harder to dodge further. She gave out a cry of pain and tried to pull one out, but her hand was burned for her efforts. Hissing softly, she gritted her teeth and forced herself to touch the searing metal long enough to pull the first bayonet out. It seemed almost a futile gesture. True, she had pulled one out, but as she reached for the second, the Priest threw another volley. Now her chest was full of blades and she whimpered at the pain. She couldn't even phase through them, the holiness of the blades was blocking her powers.

"There is no forgiveness for the likes of you," said Father Anderson, looming over the body of his fallen foe.

"Do you really believe that?" asked Diana, coughing up blood as she spoke.

"Aye, I do."

"Then your God is a cruel one."

"It's not God you have to worry about," shouted Anderson, kicking the downed vampire in the side, "it's the devil I will be sending you to!" He pulled out his swords now, crossing them over each other at a perpendicular angle, preparing to end his foe's unlife.

"I don't think so, Priest." It was the vampire in red that spoke. Clearly he had not been beaten after all. Diana didn't know if that was the good news or not. What did it matter who killed her, a fellow vampire or a Priest?

"Stubborn vampire," growled the Priest. He turned to face Alucard, leaving Diana a moment or two of respite for now. Cringing she crawled to take refuge behind her coffin while she worked on removing the painful pieces of metal from her body.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** Hellsing, not mine.

"At least you've saved us the trouble of finding our troublesome target," taunted Alucard.

"It was not for your sake that I tracked her down," said Alexander between clenched teeth. Alucard didn't bother refuting the Priest's words. Instead he took a shot at the Priest. It looked as though he was getting bored of this game already. The bullet hit its mark, but Anderson shrugged it off easily enough. Diana had never seen a regenerating human before and while the notion was intriguing, it was also quite disheartening. There really seemed no hope that the two sides would defeat each other soundly, giving her a clean get away.

"Why don't you just give up?" the Priest asked haughtily.

"I might ask you the same thing, Iscariot," returned Alucard with more than enough pride to match.

"I am on God's side; I will never back down. Not when there are monsters and heretics to combat," countered the priest, darting towards Alucard in a rapid motion while flinging blessed blades at his despised opponent. Only one of them hit Alucard, and it seemed to do very little to him other than cause annoyance. He worked easily to pull out the blade, though it did cause him to snarl slightly. Diana knew she was right; it would have been almost useless to fight him. Though running wasn't working so well for her either. Biting her bottom lip, she pulled out another blade.

Between the two of them, the Priest and the red-garbed vampire continued to trade blows and insults. Diana was slightly relieved. As long as she could hear them, she still had a little time on her side. She just had to stop watching them. Carefully she tuned out the words being thrown about and focused on her own problems.

Eventually a shadow fell across her. It dawned on her, too late, that the sounds of the fight had disappeared. In dismay she looked up to see the vampire in red looming over her. She sighed softly.

"I believe you and I have some unfinished business," said Alucard with a smirk, looking over the tops of his orange colored glasses so the she could see the anticipation in his red eyes.

"I was afraid of that," Diana murmured under her breath, slowly getting to her feet. By the time she had herself straightened out, there was a gun in her face.

"I surrender," she stated calmly, clasping her hands behind her back. Alucard blinked.

"You what?" he asked, his tone a mix of surprise and indignation. Diana repeated herself. Alucard pulled his gun back slightly, though it remained pointed at the female vampire's head. "You can't surrender," he replied, scoffing the notion.

"Why not?" she asked. This gave Alucard a moment of pause. A lot of vampires, upon reaching the end of their ropes, tried to beg for their lives. That wasn't the same as this woman calmly stating her intentions to surrender. They hadn't exchanged a single blow yet. It made him mildly curious as to what her abilities were, though there wasn't the slightest doubt that she was far weaker than him. He had come out of every situation as the best vampire.

"My orders were simple, search and destroy. I've found you, now I destroy you," he answered.

"And who gives you these orders? If you're going to kill me, I would at least like to know why," she protested, though her tone remained calm. Her eyes told a different story, however. She was frightened. This was just as well, for the elder vampire found the fear to be sweet. Cautiously she took a single step forward. "Who has tried and convicted me and sentenced me to death without ever knowing me?"

"I don't owe you any answers," rebuked Alucard, extending his gun again until it brushed the end of the female vampire's nose. A soft whimper escaped her and she closed her eyes. He put the barest amount of pressure on the trigger.

"Master," he heard a voice say from behind him. Seras had finally made her way over. She had ended the first battle a little worse for wear, which is why he had confronted Alexander a second time on his own. "I think you could at least tell her."

"And why do you think that, Police Girl?" asked the master with a fair amount of derision in his tone.

"Well, she _is_ different than the others," Seras persisted, folding her arms. Alucard merely rolled his eyes.

"You're still young, Police Girl. Being different doesn't change where she is the same. To survive at all, she would have had to do the same things all vampires do, and that makes her an enemy to my master. Remember, we are the monsters who hunt other monsters, as she is so fond of saying." He spoke with some amusement. Sir Integra had called herself a monster, and perhaps to some humans she might seem that way, but he knew how far she was from actually being such a thing. To equate her to him was amusing.

"Young doesn't mean I'm wrong." Pause. "And you're mean." The petulance in her voice grew. Since her head was still in one piece, Diana opened one eye. Yes, the gun was still pointed at her, but for the moment the elder of the two vampires was looking at his fledgling. She didn't dare relax herself, however.

"I would still like to know why I can't surrender. And, why bother stopping the Priest if you were going to kill me anyway?" The red garbed vampire gave her a full grin. The fangs were not that frightening, as she had a set of her own, but the sheer glee and mania in the smile made her unbeating heart sink.

"Because it is my job, and I take my job very seriously." His words belied the smile plastered on his face. Diana did not smile back. She gave her would be executor a long look, her expression rather thoughtful, her dainty eyebrows furrowing slightly.

"I suppose," she said, her voice soft and steady, "being what you are, killing would be the best job for you. Though, it seems a bit ironic that you are hunting down your own kind." Tilting her head to the side indicated she was still curious why. "Most humans don't know we exist. Not the real version of us, at any rate. I can only suspect that one of the few who truly know of us has employed you. But I can think of very little reward for doing so." She sighed. "Unless, that is what you truly wanted."

Alucard didn't bother with an answer initially. Rather, he pulled the trigger. But instead of being aimed at her head, he simply blew in one of her kneecaps. The woman went down with a little scream of pain.

"You shouldn't prattle on about things you know nothing about."

"And how should I know about them if you won't give me an answer," came the reply through clenched teeth. Alucard merely made a sound of derision. The woman seemed so infernally weak. Yet, she must be a full vampire in her own right to pull some of the tricks she had done. It didn't add up to his experiences, and he had five centuries worth of them. This made him curious, and that curiosity warred with his desire to squelch yet another inferior vampiric pretender. He retrained his gun on the woman's face.

"Do not move or speak. Do not even heal that wound. If you do I will tear you to pieces." Then he pulled out a phone and started dialing a number.

"Master; things just got interesting."


	4. Chapter 4

Integra hated the word 'interesting' coming from Alucard. Anything that entertained the centuries old vampire couldn't possibly be good. Suppressing a sigh, she used one hand to withdraw a cigar while the other held the phone.

"What is it that you found interesting enough to call me about instead of returning to make your report?" she asked, turning the cigar over and over in her free hand.

"Two of the targets were silenced easily, much like any other vampire we've encountered. Ah, but the third proved challenging." Integra could almost hear the smirk that must be plastered on Alucard's face as he spoke.

"I don't care how difficult it was. Is the third target silenced."

"Well, she hasn't said anything recently," returned Alcuard, deliberately misinterpreting his Master's query.

"Alucard!" Sometimes Integra suspected that the creature lived solely to annoy her. "Has the third target been destroyed?"

"Not yet."

"Then why call me about it?"

"She asked to surrender."

"WHAT?" Integra was furious, believing this to be merely one of Alucard's games.

"I told her that there was no surrendering, but she seemed to challenge the notion." Alucard glanced down at Diana, who had followed his commands to the letter, although she was clearly in pain from his shot. "Unlike so many other creatures I've silenced, she seems to know her place."

"You've been begged for mercy before, and it never changed anything. Why should this be any different?"

"Begging isn't the same as stating surrender. Cowards beg and cowards betray." This was a fact that Alucard knew all too well.

"What is your point?"

"I have received no instructions for what to do during surrender," Alucard prompted. Integra's first impulse was to just reinforce the command to destroy the target. But this might just be another of Alucard's tests. His mind wasn't always fathomable to her, and she had to guess which choice would keep her position firmly fixed. Would he believe she had gone soft if she granted the surrender, or would he believe that she was losing her valued integrity if she pressed for destruction? At the moment all she was feeling was a headache.

"Very well, bring her in. But if she even so much as tries to escape or use any sort of trickery, I want her destroyed immediately. We will not take this so called surrender lightly."

"Yes Master." Again, Integra could hear the smugness in his voice and picture quite clearly the look on his face. While she waited for this new 'guest' to arrive, she would busy herself by looking over the journal entries of Abraham to prepare a space to keep this vampire that had caught her servant's interest.

Meanwhile Alucard was looking over his captive. She was losing quite a bit of blood from her injury and suffering in utter silence. That alone was better than most trash he encountered could muster. He was pleased, though he didn't let the girl know that. If she had shown less restraint, he would have destroyed her, being as good as his word, albeit in a twisted way. And if he destroyed her, then he wouldn't be able to indulge his curiosity, both about the vampiress' abilities as well as Integra's reaction to her. He anticipated both with a rather unholy glee.

"I'm feeling gracious; you may heal that wound and sit up, but the rest of my orders apply," he said when he noticed the female captive starting to fade. He wanted her conscious through her ordeal. She acted right away, healing the wound and pulling herself listlessly to a sitting position.

"Master, she doesn't look too steady," Seras pointed out.

"That's exactly what I had in mind, Police Girl. If she's plotting deceit to get close to my Master, do you think I would risk bringing her back with all her strength?" Then he turned to his prize. "What is your name?" he demanded.

"Diana," the captive answered promptly, taking the request as an exception to the command to remain silent. She didn't deliberate on whether it was a trick or not. Alucard acknowledged the answer with a faint sneer and then turned away from her to watch Seras. His fledgling was still very human in her attitudes and he could sense the growing sympathy from her.

"_Don't be a bleeding heart, Police Girl. She's not human."_

_"You've already pointed that out," _answered Seras, her mental voice sounding a bit sour. "_But I'm not human either, and it just seems wrong somehow that we can be vampires with value, but no one else can._"

Alucard didn't answer this. He would let Integra sort out such things. After all, she was the Master's Master, and her word was law, even though it didn't directly affect Seras. But Seras wasn't the problem. In essence, she was a good girl: loyal, dutiful, protective. While Alucard was quite hard on her he was also proud of her. He wished she had a little more of his love for battle, but she was also sound enough that she wouldn't go mad. She didn't skirt the line between sanity and madness the way he did. She valued her humanity over power. While power would surely come to her over time, a loss of humanity was hard to overcome. He put the pressure on her not so that she would listen, but so that she could prove her resilience against him. Frankly, if she had jumped for power too soon, he would have been less impressed. Mentally he patted himself on the back for his offer that fateful evening in Cheddar.

However, he did not know how this other vampire, this Diana, would fit into the mix. Generations past, Abraham had captured him, bent him to his will, and bound him to his family. Dracula had suffered a great deal in body, mind, and pride, even leaving behind his name to become Alucard. And while he was still a servant to the Hellsing family, he was a proud creature. The thought of this little upstart coming into Hellsing irritated him. But she would surely fail to endure what he had endured, and he doubted that Integra would even entertain the notion of adding a third vampire to the roster. At first she had barely tolerated Seras, but Alucard had been adamant. He would not suffer his child to be destroyed, and Seras herself had quickly proven to be sound morally, even if she was a bit slow to embrace the notion of being a vampire. Integra trusted Seras, not only because she was under the command of Alucard, but because she really was loyal to Hellsing on its own merits.

No, it was unlikely that this Diana would survive more than a few days, if that. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to have a little fun with her, and with Integra, for as long as this other vampire 'lived'. Turning back to her, he hoisted her up like a sack of potatoes. Though he could travel rather swiftly on his own, generally Seras could not, so he took a ride with her back to the Hellsing manor. During the ride his captive remained silent, and though she occasionally shuddered, she made no voluntary movements.

"_She follows orders better than you do, Police Girl_," he said to Seras, deciding to give her a bit of a mental jab. Seras made a face but didn't respond. She didn't feel at all threatened by Diana; Alucard was her Master, and nothing was going to change that. Deep down she hoped that Diana was not being deceitful. It was uncomfortable being the only vampire she knew that had anything close to a conscience. Master didn't. The ones they destroyed didn't. Maybe if not all vampires were so horrible she could feel better about being one herself. But there was no sense in telling Alucard this; he would just scoff at her.


	5. Chapter 5

Preparations had been made and instructions had been given. The vampire captive had been trussed up in all sorts of bindings and chained to a wall in the basement. After receiving a full report from Alucard and Seras, Integra readied herself to meet this Diana. While she would never admit it out loud, she was a little curious to see what manner of creature had caught her servant's attention.

What she saw wasn't terribly impressive, but, as Integra reflected, it would be hard to find someone who could match the level of sheer presence that Alucard had. The vampire had the body of a young woman somewhere in her late teens. Her skin was a paler shade than either of Hellsing's resident vampires and her hair was black like Alucard's, though much less wild despite the fact she had clearly been through a scuffle. Unlike Seras' sturdy and buxom build, this other vampiress was willowy, her features petite. She knew Alucard well enough to know that it wasn't the girl's pretty face and form that had caught his attention; attractive creatures had fallen to his guns as often as ugly or plain ones had. To Integra it was the woman's eyes that were the most striking. They weren't the brilliant red of fire like Alucard's. Instead, they were a very dark shade of red, more like a garnet Integra had once seen on the finger of a Lord's wife.

When Integra entered the room, the trussed up vampire woman looked at her with those deep colored eyes. If Sir Hellsing was expecting a scene, she was bound to be disappointed. The expression on the girl's face was questioning for a moment and then showed a calm appraisal of the blond in front of her. She didn't speak, but that was probably because her mouth had been gagged. With a motion Integra indicated that Alucard should untie the woman's mouth, giving instructions to shoot her if she tried any trickery. As soon as the binding across her mouth had been removed, Diana let out a sigh of relief and soothed the sore sides of her lips with her tongue. Then she turned all her attention towards Integra.

"Don't even think of trying to escape; you won't get very far," said Integra firmly, lighting up a cigar and placing it between her lips. "I want straightforward and truthful answers from you. Do you understand?" The question was asked with an exhalation of smoke which made the captive vampire's nose twitch slightly.

"I understand," said the vampiress, her voice soft and clear. "You are the Master then?"

"I will ask the questions here!" snapped Integra, narrowing her eyes at the prisoner. Diana nodded her head slightly in acquiescence. "But yes, I am in charge here, and you would do well to remember that, vampire." The woman's disdain of the kind was clear. Diana flicked a glance towards Alucard and then back to Integra, waiting for the human to ask her questions.

"Now, why do you think you are deserving of our mercy?" asked Integra coldly, her eyes like steel.

"Because I have done you no wrong," Diana answered simply, her body language nonexistent due to her tied up state.

"We do not do this out of a personal vendetta. Whether you have harmed me personally is immaterial," said Integra, punctuating the remark by making a cutting motion in the air with one hand. "The Hellsing Organization has hunted down vampire since its inception. We hunt the creatures that prey on humanity. As a vampire, that is exactly what you do." Sir Hellsing exhaled more smoke. "Any attack on a British citizen is the same as an attack on us. So, tell me again that you have done us no wrong."

"I am not in the habit of attacking people, British citizens or otherwise," Diana said slowly. "My history isn't without blame, but I hold no malice towards humanity. I simply wanted to be left alone."

"I find that hard to believe. You were found in the company of two other vampires, vampire which had created ghouls and caused havoc. By that association alone you are guilty."

"They were not my progeny and they had their own free will. I was hoping to teach them another way. But many new vampires these days..." Diana paused and sighed, shaking her head as much as she was able. "They are greedy with little self control," she concluded. Integra flicked a glance towards Alucard. She had heard similar sentiments from her servant, albeit with a much harsher vocabulary. Idly she wondered if the woman had heard such things and was trying to make a good impression, or if she truly believed such things.

"Let us pretend for a moment that I believe you. You still knew about their activities and did not stop them. People lost their lives because you didn't interfere."

"I'm not a vigilante," Diana answered stiffly, glancing sideways at Alucard. "Nor am I judge, jury, and executioner." Her expression softened. "Then again, our kind doesn't exactly have a system of justice. I suppose something has to be done." For a moment she looked pained. "I just didn't have time to do anything. I had only just found the two men in that house a few nights before your vampire found and destroyed them."

Integra didn't have an immediate response to this. Justice for vampires was not a notion she had ever considered before. The decision to keep Alucard had been made long before she was born, before her father had even been born. She was a proud inheritor of an old tradition, and she wasn't about to throw it away. And Seras, well, she hadn't wanted to keep Seras at first, but the young woman had been trained as a police officer and was actually more tractable than her Master. She had to admit that she was wrong about Seras, but she stubbornly didn't want to admit the possibility a second time. Besides, Diana was not of Alucard's making; he wouldn't put up the same fight to keep her as he did with Seras, so he was unlikely to be a problem. But this also meant that the decision rested solely on her shoulders. Fortunately, she was used to carrying heavy burdens of conscience.

"Unfortunately we only have your word that you are as, ahem, harmless as you say," Integra finally said, clasping her hands behind her back, the cigar having long since been used up during her deliberations.

"And, because I am a vampire, I'm not deserving of anything resembling a fair trial I suppose," responded Diana, eyebrows rising. Her tone was subdued, but not without a hint of challenge in it.

"Where would I find any witnesses to corroborate your story?" countered Integra. "You may have noticed that there aren't many humans running around who have survived attacks by your kind." Diana winced slightly at this, but didn't interrupt. "You even admitted that most of your kind are greedy and impulsive and made no attempt to defend their actions. I doubt any of them would give an account favourable to you, if they even survived long enough to do so."

"You have all the witness you need if you trust this Alucard of yours," Diana said, twitching slightly since she couldn't actually gesture towards the other vampire. "He simply has to take the information he wants; there is little I can do to stop him."

This was true, and Integra cursed herself for not thinking of it first. But, in all honesty, she wasn't trying terribly hard to think of an equitable way to deal with the female vampire. In fact, she had only let her live this long out of a curiosity to see what made her different. She had never intended to spare the woman. But could she really claim to be in the right if she destroyed a creature that was helpless and at her mercy, even if such a creature was a vampire? Integra wasn't so certain, and she didn't plan to make her name ironic.

"Very well," Integra said crisply. "Alucard, get to the bottom of this."

"Yes, my Master," replied Alucard with his trademark grin as he advanced on the bound Diana. Vampire blood was never quite as sweet to him as mortal nectar, but he did love a bit of interrogation now and then.


	6. Chapter 6

Most of the time when Alucard wanted to take a peek inside people's heads through their blood they tried to put up a fight, tried to raise their feeble mental barriers to keep him out. Diana made no such effort, and he could tell this instantly. While he generally pushed them aside so easily he barely noticed them, the complete absence of any barriers took him by surprise. Diana's mind opened up for him as easily as a book did for a mortal. He took this as a further sign that the vampiress wished to cooperate. It didn't occur to him that she might be trying deceit and succeeding; his arrogance wouldn't brook the notion of someone strong or clever enough existing who could resist his perusal of their mind.

Alucard barely skimmed the surface of Diana's earliest years. The childhood of a little girl held no interest for him, though he saw enough to establish that she was the only child of a wealthy family. By the looks of the furniture and clothing he guessed that she was alive and breathing maybe ten or fifteen years before he arrived in England as Count Dracula. This alone was information worth knowing. Judging by her current appearances it made it clear that she was at least a century old.

Skipping ahead Alucard stopped somewhere in her teens he would guess. Since it was her memories, he saw them through her eyes. He stopped because he could feel a sense of apprehension attached to the memories, and this might be what he was looking for. Even if it wasn't, it might give him information to use against her later, if such a thing would even be necessary. Quite likely Integra would just order her destroyed. In a way it was almost a pity; most vampire he came across were so young and stupid these days.

In the current memory it seemed that Diana was in a darkened room, hiding in a corner. By the feeling of her heart beat and the effect the room's dimness had on her eyes, Alucard could tell that she was still mortal: mortal, and in distress. The room was a bit on the lavish side and obviously a bedroom. A woman was lying on the bed. She was in her late thirties and looked quite ill; she was propped up on pillowed and well covered. Clearly she was sleeping. By the affection and anxiety Diana felt at looking at her, Alucard took a guess that she was her mother.

At the sound of a door opening, Diana tucked herself even further into the corner, trying to make her body seem small. A man came in, wearing nice clothes and carrying the equipment of a doctor. He leaned over the woman in the bed and went through the motions of checking her vital signs. Diana said nothing to him and he didn't seem to be aware of the young woman. Moments later a servant came into the room.

"Poor woman," the servant said, shaking his head. While the words should have sounded sympathetic, they sounded mocking instead.

"Not poor enough yet," murmured the doctor, so as not to wake the sleeping woman. He straightened himself up and turned away from his patient. "I think she should be pretty stable for a while yet. We don't want her dying too soon. Still, it's a good thing you contacted me; she isn't any used to me dead."

Alucard could feel the memory version of Diana stifle a scream. He could feel the sense of anger, betrayal, and confusion in her mind as the scene played out before him. Inadvertently the young woman had discovered that her doctor was not actually there to help her mother, but was keeping her alive just so he could suck the family dry of whatever money they had. But she was just a young woman, properly raised in a time where women were not at all supposed to start a confrontation. In contrast the doctor was a male adult as well as an established professional in a well esteemed field. While he wasn't a gentleman, certainly, everyone knew the value of a doctor.

Diana was filled with a great deal of turmoil and it took a great deal of restraint to stop herself from coming out of her hiding place and confronting the man. But she stayed still for now, trying to think of what she should do with the information. Her father was often away, finding it hard to be around the house while his wife was so ill. She had no siblings and no other close relatives to turn to.

Alucard skipped ahead a few days in her memories until the time she went to confront the man. All her words meant nothing to the greedy doctor, and when she threatened to expose him, he instead drugged her. Later she woke up in a miserable place: an institution for the insane. While she wasn't actually insane the doctor came in to taunt her, letting her know that she would never get out because she dared to cross him. He had told her father that, with the illness of her mother, she had had a mental breakdown and had offered to take her someplace safe...for a price of course. There was no end to his greed, and he didn't care about who he had to destroy to satisfy his desires for wealth.

Her time spent in the asylum was not good. Such places were not run with much care for the patients. It was a worse place than the one that Renfield had been confined to. Alucard realized that, as much as he had disliked the motley band of men who had bested him, at least the doctor among them had been true to his calling. Seward's place had been miserable enough, but Diana had things much worse than any of those other inmates had it. She was poorly fed and clothed, and sanitation was almost nonexistent. For someone who had been raised with much care and privilege, it was a hard thing to take. But what made it worse was the knowledge of two things: one, she did not belong here, and two, she knew that her mother was dying and that no one was going to save her. It didn't help that now her father was all alone and at the mercy of whatever the crooked doctor wished to tell him.

Diana tried several times to escape, but each attempt was met with severely harsh physical reprimands. The doctor didn't let anyone else attend to her, so she couldn't even attempt to reason with anyone. Alucard was unfazed by the cruelty of the doctor. However, when the abuse took a turn for the worse, he was a bit surprised. Typically a vampire could only be made from a virgin of the opposite gender of his, or her, maker. The question of virginity had been rather vital when he 'saved' Seras in the village of Cheddar. But, according to her memories, Diana should not have been a candidate for vampirism.

Eager to solve the mystery, Alucard skipped ahead again. This time Diana was left in a room, bleeding and very weak. Over time the abuse had taken away a lot of the benefits of being raised in luxury, and Alucard could sense in her mind that she knew she didn't have much time left. What happened next surprised Alucard. Very much like he did before his mortal death, she made her own agreement with dark forces, the deal signed in her own blood. The implications of this gave Alucard a moment of pause; Diana had no master. Could she, given four hundred more years, become a truly powerful creature, just as he had? Even with all his powers, Alucard did not have the ability to see the future. However, despite her potential to be his equal, given time, she was so different from him.

It wasn't despair that had brought her to make the decision so much as it was a last attempt to free herself from her own version of hell, and to save her family from the ruin the doctor had helped them into. But there was the part of her, the darker part that told her it was okay to forsake her soul that simply wanted revenge on the man who had stolen her away from everything that was good in her life. And it was this part that was set free the moment that the power coursed through her body. It was the part of her that prompted her to remove the door from its hinges and prowl through the halls, hungry for blood. But it couldn't be just any blood; it had to be his blood.

Alucard watched the memories with a great deal of interest. By the time he had become a vampire; his hands were already steeped in blood, his name in history forged by steel, his legacy fixed in place by cruel spikes. He had been a man, a leader, in a time of war and turmoil. Killing was nothing to him. But he wondered how different it would be with a young woman who had never had the desire or need to hurt another soul in her life. Revenge is a powerful emotion, however, and the bloodlust of a new vampire is hard to ignore. It was a wonder that Seras did it for so long.

Diana found the source of her pain sitting in his office, calmly going over his finances. He was surprised to see her, but his lips curled in disdain. To him she was merely an obstacle. In his arrogance he didn't notice the changes that had come over his captive. Without much concern he moved to ring for an orderly. With a speed that surprised even herself, Diana rushed towards him, intercepting him on his way to the bells. Fueled by a combination of rage, loss, and bloodlust, she grabbed him by the throat and pinned him up against a wall. She said nothing to him, but merely looked him straight in the eye so that he could see her intentions and all the emotions behind them.

Naturally the doctor tried to fight; he could see his death in her eyes. He tried to call out, but her hands around his throat made the sound come out as a few feeble squeaks. His feet kicked against her, kicked back against the wall, but he couldn't free himself from her, and his hands beat futilely against anything he could reach as he vainly struggled to find something to help him. But Diana was inexorable.

It was then that she first lost herself in the taste of human blood. At first she couldn't tell which tasted sweeter between revenge and the warm blood. And she could also taste the man's surprise, then anger, and then fear at what was happening to him. Being so new, she couldn't fully absorb memories, but she could see how small the man's soul really was, and it began to sour the experience after a while. Half reluctantly she let him go and watched his body slide to the floor. He wasn't dead...yet. She decided it was justice to leave him as badly injured as he had left her earlier that evening.

Unfortunately for her, the doctor had put up enough of a fight to call in the attention of an orderly. The man walked in just as Diana was turning away from the body. It didn't take long for the man to realize that she was responsible for the state of the doctor. As a gut reaction, he charged at the young woman hoping to subdue her, but Diana was still being prompted by the darker voices inside of her. He caught the man easily with her new strength and proceeded to bite into his neck as well. The emotions she felt this time were much more overwhelming. The fear was the same, but there was much more desperation and surprise in this man. The doctor had felt her enmity and knew exactly what he had done to deserve it, but the poor orderly had done nothing to her. All he knew was that he was suddenly unable to defend himself against someone and that he was likely going to die. But his fear went beyond himself. Dimly Diana could feel his concern reach out to others, probably his family. She found such things much less palatable. Dropping the orderly, she turned and fled.


End file.
